Your phone alarm goes off at 6 am. You check your notifications. It’s bad news after bad news. The world is at war. The economy is tanking. Weather? A sauna-level 50°C. To make matters worse, there’s the 2 am text you sent to your two-month-old situationship. Unread. Unanswered.
But in a slightly brighter corner of the internet, your favourite brand has just dropped new markdowns. Your bid on a second-hand JW Anderson bag has been accepted. You’ve got your eyes on a new Labubu to match. Add to cart. Checkout.
Meet the morning shopper, browsing while the rest of the world is still thumbing snooze. You know them. You probably are them. Is it a self-care ritual? A coping mechanism? Doom spending in disguise? The reality, like most things online, lives somewhere in between.
Scroll, compare, repeat
Fashion stylist and costume designer Aasia Abbas is refreshingly candid about her morning scroll. “Sometimes I do it while taking a dump,” she says, laughing. “It always lifts my spirits. It’s like a game,” she adds. Abbas swears by price comparisons and brand newsletters, adding, “It’s also research for me.” Her most coveted pre-9-am find? A pre-loved Chanel Ca’ d’Oro. “That felt as satisfying as solving a game of Sudoku.”
For luxury publicist Srishti Talwar, the motivation is part tactical, part therapeutic. “A lot of brands drop collections or surprise flash sales around midnight or 11 am, so if you’re a popular size, like Medium or Large, you have to act fast,” she reasons. Her commute doubles up as scroll-time. “I set alerts, and track launches, which helps me shop smart. Plus, it feels great to tick something off your personal list early in the day.”
Paris-based student Namit Mahajan uses mornings to browse, not buy. “It’s like visiting a digital gallery,” he says. “I love to thrift, and my go-to apps are Vinted and Vestiaire Collective. But I rarely purchase on impulse. You could call me a serial browser.”
The cost of a click
But what happens when your morning retail habit becomes a recurring expense?
“Shopping first thing in the morning can feel like you’re taking control of the day. But when it becomes compulsive, it can have real financial consequences,” says Ashita Mahendru, clinical psychologist and founder of Mind Healing and Research Institute. “The temptation to soothe stress with spending is high, and most people don’t realise how much it’s costing them until their credit card bill arrives.”
The reddit thread r/shoppingaddiction is full of users sharing stories about their favourite time to shop (weekend mornings), the piles of unopened packages that arrive every day, and the ensuing financial debt. But the pull is irresistible, as user @Humid_fire99 wrote: “It honestly keeps me going every morning checking where the packages are. [Even] while waiting I shop for more and more.”
Emotions also fuel behaviour, and for some, morning shopping is an anchor. Marketing professional Lubna Salim remembers it as a phase. “If I had something new to wear, the week just felt better,” she says. On Sunday morning, post-brunch mall runs used to give her a sense of structure and control. Until the habit turned slippery. “It started off empowering. Eventually, I didn’t even realise how much I was spending. The guilt came later,” she admits.
Psychologist Ashita Mahendru refers to this as “temporary mood repair”. “A purchase can offer the illusion of progress. You get a hit of serotonin without doing much. But the high is short-lived,” she warns.
Sit, swap, delay the shop
How do you resist the urge without stripping away the joy? Start by delaying the purchase. Add to cart if you must, but wait for 24 hours before checking out. “Impulse fades faster than we think,” says Mahendru. “If the item still feels essential the next morning, then it’s probably a more grounded decision.” Next, identify your personal shopping triggers. Are you buying after a bad night’s sleep? Following a doomscroll session? Out of boredom, or to feel in control? “Once you name the pattern, you can interrupt it,” Mahendru adds.
Other useful tactics include turning off triggers, like brand emails or wishlist alerts or, if shopping has become a ritual you depend on, consider replacing the rush. “Structure matters, especially in the morning. But that structure doesn’t have to involve spending,” says Mahendru. Swap the scroll for a quick outfit remix from your wardrobe, a coffee brewed mindfully, or even a short walk outside. Give yourself something to look forward to that doesn’t come with a delivery timeline.
For better or for worse, a quick morning scroll through the Ikea or Amazon app can help you postpone dealing with the real world for just a little while longer. It’s boredom balm. A reclaiming of control. A low-stakes way to feel productive, creative, even a little victorious, without worrying about your to-do list for the day. However, before you hit checkout next, ask yourself this: Am I buying this because I love it or because I need to feel something? If it’s the latter, that feeling might need something deeper than a yellow Spetsboj lamp that will really lift that living room corner.
